argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Pandemic(s)
Aitor Irigoien Odriozola 2020ko ekainaren 25

Pandemic: An epidemic, a disease that affects the vast majority of the world's population or a territory.

It has been difficult, strange and long days that we have lived through since 14 March. An unknown situation, a kind of never-ending nightmare. Suddenly, from one day to the next, (almost) everything stayed. The ever-present wall of our houses seemed, unconsciously, to be like the strange walls of a prison. It seemed “normal” to us a new and invisible virus that completely broke the day by day crazy and weathered.

It will still be difficult for me to make an in-depth analysis of everything. But personally, this leaves me with a lot of questions and too many suspicions. Because in a very short time there have been many events that break all logic:

On February 23, inside the carnivals, one of the star costumes was coronavirus. Many people disguised themselves, carelessly, of this virus that already caused thousands and thousands of deaths in China. They were distant things and we didn’t care… We didn’t imagine that those jokes and laughter would soon become a drama or that fear would invade our most protected and intimate corners.

During the first two weekends of March, thousands of people gathered in stadiums, giant demonstrations, sports competitions… The authorities decided that we could not leave the house (they imposed us) just a week before the date… The virus that caused so much destruction in China was, apparently, directly to Italy and the Spanish state, as if it had crossed half a world…

"We didn't imagine that those jokes and laughter would soon become a drama or that terror would invade even our most intimate and protected corners."

Then these leaders began to give daily press conferences, constantly offering data and new measures that were totally opposed to each other. They weren't surrounded by doctors or scientists. It wasn't in the company of military and army chiefs. “We are all soldiers and the king is everyone’s head, we have a common enemy, we are going to win this war”… The streets, the train stations, the schools… they emptied everything, but before realizing it, they filled us with all the military…

From the very beginning, the Spanish State set its ‘own mark’: centralization, the only authority, the hidden application of Article 155, geolocation through the cell phone, the tones and speeches that seemed to be of the dictatorship… One more step in the strategy of fear: the reduction of rights that we already had limited and the intensification of social control that already existed.

The citizens could not leave the house, the small shops closed, but the big factories and corporations remained open, the hospitals were about to collapse and the toilets, without basic protective equipment, did what they could... They went to the vegetable garden and the fairs were banned, while in the big supermarkets, overloaded with people, we started emptying the shelves. Children's parks were sealed and hugs and kisses were avoided, with tobacco sales ponds open as basic services.

Unfortunately, people had already begun to die. A lot of people. Especially the elderly and those in extremely serious health conditions. The weakest. Again. It is precisely in the areas with the greatest problems of overpopulation and pension systems that thousands of people were killed. Alone, many outside the house, without the company of family members, without funerals, making the moments already so hard for family members unbearable… Thousands of deaths in the environment. Those who don't come back. Those of us who haven't been able to say goodbye.

On the other hand, the numbers of contagious and deceased began to be offered at all times and in all places, to extend the confinement every 15 days, to banish the need for children and the elderly to go to the street... And if all this was not enough, the police of the street, those of the balconies were joined by those of the balconies...

Meanwhile, hospital and nursing home workers continued in the same situation: without testing and without protective equipment... Congressional deputies, on the contrary, had tests on more than one occasion and received many positive cases... In our case, the workers told us that from the Basque right, the loyal speaker of the employer, we had to go to work, because the economy could not stop... Laudios and the doctors and nurses. And how not, in the midst of all these problems, the most important and urgent issue: convening elections as soon as possible.

In recent weeks we have heard many times that COVID-19 has brought the best out of people. I am not going to say that this is not the case, because it is true that there are people who have had everything and who have given more, showing a truly exemplary attitude. But nor can we deny that, in the same situation, it has touched us to see the worst of many people, to suffer it.

So the present is very worrying, but I'm more concerned about the future. The TEUs, unemployment, the closure of businesses and small businesses, the global economic crisis … Social inequalities will grow and those of will always suffer the consequences. Faced with this, some dream that the future will be equal to the past, but I would say that the future will be even worse than the past.

In short, this invisible pandemic, known as COVID-19, has revealed (and accelerated) deeper pandemics that were hidden in society. And for them, the search for the vaccine seems very difficult.